Almond Tree, Van Gogh

To think and to look out of the box is something we tend to forget in our society. It is hard to create your own taste in a world where everybody is shaped on the same basis, learning the same ideas about the same thing. In art, it is the same. We learn about "master pieces", what this famous painter did best in his career, what was his main accomplishment, which was the painting that made out of him this famous painter. For Van Gogh, useless to say that the "Sunflowers" is for sure his most well-known work, a work that everybody look out with amazement, finding magically all the reasons why the system named this one the best one. Authority in art is art history shaped by art historians. They tell you what is worth looking at, and when you go to the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, you will be sure to find everybody in front of the "Sunflowers", completely forgetting about the "Almond Tree", which is for me far better.

I discovered this painting in Amsterdam, not during my three years studying Art History. I met this painting and I instantly fell in love with it. It was so different from the rest, so original thanks to the color palet that he choose, opposite to the sunny yellowy shades he usually worked with. This piece stand out of the crowd as for me in the career of this artist. It is maybe the piece nobody cares about, but everybody should. To enjoy it however, you have to forget about everything the authority told you. You have to forget about the "Sunflowers", you have to forget about everybody's favorite painting. Yours might be the "Sunflowers" however, it might be the "Almond Tree", it does not really matter. What matters is to learn to think and to look out of the box, here are the real treasures. I found mine.